In general, a nonuniform set of tooth or a false occlusion (a bite of tooth does not fit) is caused by cacogenesis of tooth themselves, cacogenesis of jawbones, or bad habits of sucking fingers early in life, with a result that tooth do not grow right in place.
People who have a nonuniform set of tooth or a false occlusion would hide their mouths due to the ugly tooth row when talking or laughing with another person or cope negatively with personal relations. Accordingly, they may not live a smooth social life, respectively. They may not also pulverize food evenly at the time of food intake. Further, food dregs may be caught in gaps between the tooth. As a result, various kinds of cacodontias or disease of the digestive system may be caused.
To solve these conventional problems, continuous force is applied to tooth, to thus medically treat correction of a row of irregular tooth of a principle of bring about a transfer of tooth with reconstruction of alveolar bones which enclose tooth.
A conventional bracket has a characteristic angle known as so-called prescription between a base portion and a groove or slot. The bracket helps treatment easily performed due to an inherent set angle, but the conventional bracket is of an expensive additional production cost including a processing treatment cost for this reason, to thereby cause a price of a product to amount very high.
That is, the bracket for revising a set of teeth according to the conventional art is made using a method of giving an average prescription value with respect to each bracket. That is, it is the best to give a suitable prescription value to individual patients, respectively. However, considerable effort and expense is required to give a suitable prescription value to individual patients, respectively. Thus, it is not so easy in actuality to employ the method of giving an average prescription value with respect to each bracket, to resultantly drop a function of the bracket.
The conventional bracket is manufactured by resin or ceramics and is not seen well due to the fact that the color of the bracket is similar to the color of tooth but causes prices to increase.
Also, brackets become smaller so that a patient does not feel less a sense of a foreign matter but feel comfortable when the brackets are attached to the patient's teeth. However, this also becomes a price rising factor. Further, brackets are required to become products which can be easily installed for patients in a short time.
On the other hand, orthodontics treatment is performed by attaching a bracket for revising a set of teeth on the respective surfaces of the tooth and controlling a wire which is combined into a groove or slot formed in the bracket. To transfer a force of the wire correctly to the bracket at the time of the orthodontics treatment, positioning of the bracket which is attached on the surfaces of the tooth plays a very important part in the orthodontics treatment process and result. Therefore, it is required a tool for reconstructing a position of the bracket designed or planned through diagnostic on the surfaces of the tooth of the patient's exactly.
A tool which exactly holds a bracket's installation position in the patient's teeth is called a bracket positioning jig or transfer jig. Most conventional bracket positioning jigs or transfer jigs have been manufactured by dentists directly or manufactured manually in a workshop. That is, liquefied resin is poured into a bracket-mounted gypsum tooth model and then cured. Then, the gypsum tooth model is removed and the gypsum tooth are cut and elaborated to fit in the respective teeth. Accordingly, a customized jig for the respective teeth is manufactured.
In the following, a conventional orthodontics treatment bracket for revising a set of teeth and a conventional bracket positioning jig will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.
As illustrated in FIG. 1A, a general orthodontics treatment bracket 10 for revising a set of teeth has a shape that a pair of wings 14 and 16 which are spaced by a predetermined interval are integrally formed on a base 12 attached on a tooth “A.” A slot 18 into which a wire (not shown) is inserted is formed between the wings 14 and 16 is formed.
The orthodontics treatment bracket 10 for revising a set of teeth is attached on the surface of a lip side (that is, an outer side) of the tooth or a tongue side (that is, an inner side). However, the orthodontics treatment bracket 10 is recently attached on the tooth at the tongue side, considering that the orthodontics treatment bracket is exposed externally at the time of personal relations.
Before an orthodontics treatment bracket 10 for revising a set of teeth is mounted on the tooth, the bracket 10 is installed in the lower portion of a jig 30 that is manually manufactured, as illustrated in FIG. 1B.
The jig 30 includes a cap 34 having a receptacle 32 which accommodates a tooth, and a support 38 which is installed at one side of the rear surface of the cap 34, and which has a coupler 36 which combines an orthodontics treatment bracket for revising a set of teeth with the lower portion of a jig body. Here, in the case of the conventional jig, the cap 34 and the support 38 are integrally formed into one body.
A process of using the jig 30 as constructed above will be described as follows.
First, the orthodontics treatment bracket 10 for revising a set of teeth is coupled on the coupler 36 of the jig 30. Then, the orthodontics treatment bracket 10 is placed on the surface of the tooth and the receptacle 32 formed in the cap 34 of the jig 30 is placed on the tooth.
Thereafter, the bracket 10 is fixed on the surface of the tooth by curing thermosetting resin which is attached on the bottom of a base of the orthodontics treatment bracket 10 for revising a set of teeth 10, using laser and the jig 30 is separated from the tooth.
In this case, because the jig 30 has the cap 34 and the support 38 which are integrated into one body, there is a problem that the jig 30 is not easily separated from the tooth.
When the bracket 10 is attached on the surface of the tooth, a user a dentist can mount the bracket 10 correctly and safely as a portion (an area) where the jig 30 contacts the tooth becomes wider. However, since the conventional bracket positioning jig is formed into a single body, the area where the jig 30 contacts the tooth is limited due to a problem which occurs at the time of removal of the jig after the orthodontics treatment bracket has been mounted on the tooth.
In addition, a three-dimensional relationship (that is, angle/distance) of a tooth and a bracket for treatment is called as “prescription.” This means a relationship between a wire for treatment and a groove (slot) which is located in the bracket. Therefore, since the jig should express these relationships among the bracket, the wire, and the tooth, but the jig that has been manually manufactured is based on the external shape not a slot of the bracket, accuracy of the jig drops.
In addition, in the case that an orthodontics treatment bracket for revising a set of teeth which has been attached to a patient is detached from the patient, the orthodontics treatment bracket should be attached to the patient again in the conventional technology. However, if the manually manufactured jig has been lost, the lost jig should be newly manufactured again together with a jig for other tooth.
In particular, since a conventional bracket positioning jig is manually manufactured, a production and purchase cost is very high, and quality of the product is also consistent. As a result, such a conventional bracket positioning jig makes a bad influence upon the result of treatment, and should be abolished after use one time.
Further, in the case of the conventional jig, one patient needs about 20-30 jigs. Accordingly, it is very difficult to keep recording of marks for different jigs.
Korea Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-20214 discloses “Integral multi-purpose bracket attachment apparatus with indicated height and angle of tooth” but the structure is very complicated and thus there is a problem that a manufacturing cost is high.
In addition, Korea Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-16324 discloses “Positioning and attachment auxiliary apparatus for settlement type orthodontics treatment brackets, which includes a molding portion which is coupled with the top end of a tooth, a main body which is extended from the upper portion of the molding portion to the surface of the tooth, and a rubber ring which combines the main body and a bracket. However, since the molding portion and the main body which play an important role of deciding a bracket attachment position are manually manufactured in this technology, it is difficult and complicated to perform a correct positioning work for a bracket, and it is not simple to separate the molding portion and the main body after attachment of the bracket. Further, there is a problem that cost rises because the orthodontics treatment apparatus is manually manufactured.